Monday, February 6, 2012

Based in Warsaw, Maciek Herman is a Polish photographer and friend who sent me these new pictures of his. Maciek told me that he thought that the work wasn't exactly my type of photography. Well in some ways he is right but in others the work is completely what I like and look for. For me what separates photographs that are presented as "art" and are nothing more than decoration and those that have substance, depth and resonate in the mind long after you've seen them is simply this - authenticity. Authenticity is about truth, sincerity and right intention, work made from the heart and the head. This new work from Maciek Herman has all these qualities and much more.

Maciek says this about his project: The project is devoted to fathers who have children with Down syndrome. Thanks to some Polish Down syndrome organization I managed to reach (and get an approval for taking a portrait) several guys, who are quite famous in Poland - from business, politics, science and art world. I decided to take a common portrait of the man and the child. The photos will be soon joined with the interviews with the same guys and released together as a book. This is especially good news, not only because of "my album", but also because it will hopefully will reach some other purposes connected with Down syndrome awareness within the Polish society.

The work is showing until February 19th at Galerie Refleksy in Warsaw.

About Me

My pictures explore the strange anthropology of cities. The unusual and overlooked in the human landscape.
I am asking the viewer to question the idea that photographs as documents are complete representations of subject.
I'm interested in the universality of life and the idea of parallel lives - when one thing is happening here, something else is happening over there. The democracy of non-places fascinates me, in the knowledge that inevitably nothing is as it seems.
I work and live between Auckland and Paris.
http://harveybenge.com/
email:harvey.benge@xtra.co.nz